Speak for yourself….

Yes I was.
Getting accreditation and a good spot the right side of the barrier and getting your photography head on means better images. However it’s great to stand there with a drink and watch the action unencumbered and look at others high quality pics after the event than view the once in a lifetime action through a viewfinder or iPhone screen.
IMHO.

Spot the pissy ‘pro’ 😉

I’m a punter not a pro sports/concert/event photographer.

Here are a few of mine from the Hockey.

_D7K6283 – crop by theflatboy, on Flickr

_D7K6220 by theflatboy, on Flickr

_D7K6300 by theflatboy, on Flickr

_D7K6277 by theflatboy, on Flickr

Flickr set here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/theflatboy/sets/72157630875058350/

Wouldn’t you rather just enjoy the sport/concert than lug the gear around and take photographs?
The pics rarely look as good as those who get closer acess with a 300-400 2.8

A Lumix TZ30 hardly requires ‘lugging about’, and for the two examples I posted I was stood two feet behind the pros.
Their advantage is moving about to get better angles without a mic getting in the way, but they only get two or three songs to work with, I get the whole gig.
In any case, it’s not about getting pics as good as a pro photographer, it’s about having images to reinforce your own memories of the event.
This is an example, taken at Hyde Park. There were already lots of people near the front, because I’d been watching the Smoke Fairies beforehand, and my TZ3 camera battery died after about half way through, so I just grabbed a couple of shots with my iPhone. This is a crop from the original, which used digital zoom. It’s hardly perfect, but the lighting works, and I’m chuffed with it, it reinforces my memories of the day:

Laura Marling at Hyde Park

It’s all about memories for most people, especially something like these Olympics, there will never be another chance for most of the people who are there, and, whatever pics they get, will be looked at time and time again, with the thought, ‘damn, I was actually there!

DANGER, WILL ROBINSON!

The rules have changed. Read this.

http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/photo-news/538998/olympics-bosses-crack-down-on-spectator-camera-gear-update

a spokesman for Olympic organiser Locog this afternoon revealed a radical tightening of restrictions at venues nationwide.

‘One [interchangeable-lens] camera with a 35mm [focal length] lens [is acceptable] but anything more is considered professional equipment and too large for spectator seating.’

More on the link.

Interesting. What are you trying to achieve?

I’m trying to take better photographs. I’m not sure what you’re asking?

I’m trying to take better photographs. I’m not sure what you’re asking?

He isn’t asking anything, he’s just being facetious as per.

I also find the only way to improve my photography is to actually practice shooting in different environments – the more varied the better.

He isn’t asking anything, he’s just being facetious as per.

It’s so hard to tell sometimes amongst STW’s regular background facetiousness radiation.

I also find the only way to improve my photography is to actually practice shooting in different environments – the more varied the better.

Indeed. Which is what I was getting at in the first place.

I used to take a camera along to events and snap away, but then I realised that you miss what you often paid good money to see and that these days pics of the event are easy to come by, and that BBC HD with Sky + is doing an ok job of the olympics

He isn’t asking anything, he’s just being facetious as per.

Really? You need to put your brain in gear before firing up the keyboard little lap dog. 🙄 I know you’re just a little bit jealous.

I’m trying to take better photographs. I’m not sure what you’re asking?

The reason I asked was because of the passing me at 50km/hr comment and was interested in knowing a bit more about the taking better pictures element and offer some advice and tips, regarding images and objectives.
Four years dedicated to photographing all cycling disciplines means I might have picked up a trick or two. But not to worry, no skin off my nose. 😛

Really? You need to put your brain in gear before firing up the keyboard little lap dog. I know you’re just a little bit jealous

Maybe if you’d asked a more structured question and didn’t have a history of being a bit snippy, then I wouldn’t have jumped to that conclusion. In any case, my apologies.

As for being jealous? I’m not quite sure what I’m supposed to be jealous of, but I can assure you, I’m not. Comments like that don’t help your cause.

Comments like that don’t help your cause.

It’s a good job I couldn’t give a toss, innit? Otherwise I’d start following people around the forum with my uninformed little sippets of wisdom. 😀

But not to worry, no skin off my nose.

Hey, I wasn’t being snippy, I genuinely didn’t know what you were getting at. All hints gratefully received.

The shots I took were with aperture priority at about 1/1000 using a nifty fifty. I know I’d have got better pics by panning with the movement of the riders, but my view was restricted to the point where I couldn’t get a good enough view to time that properly. Did a few peloton shots with continuous drive just to see what fell out.

Shots were then tweaked slightly for contrast and cropped slightly for composition. A couple of results here.

It’s a good job I couldn’t give a toss, innit? Otherwise I’d start following people around the forum with my uninformed little sippets of wisdom.

Strange then that whenever I seem to post anything, up you pop also. P’raps you fancy me 🙂

I’ve just had a quick look Cougar. Are you on autofucus too? Go off forum if you like and I’ll stick some ideas in an email.

Email in profile. Cheers.

Yeah, I honestly can’t remember what I was doing with focus but wasn’t manual.

Not that it matters but,

The shots I took were with aperture priority at about 1/1000 using a nifty fifty.

This was a typo, shutter priority I meant.

a spokesman for Olympic organiser Locog this afternoon revealed a radical tightening of restrictions at venues nationwide.
‘One [interchangeable-lens] camera with a 35mm [focal length] lens [is acceptable] but anything more is considered professional equipment and too large for spectator seating.’

Does any camera actually come with a 35mm focal length lens?
Even a 50 is rare these days, it’s usually an 18-55 kit on DSLR’s, and a 14-55 or thereabouts on mirrorless compacts.
Seems very odd to me.
Sticking with something like my TZ seems the best option; 20x zoom, 23-430, iirc.

a spokesman for Olympic organiser Locog this afternoon revealed a radical tightening of restrictions at venues nationwide.
‘One [interchangeable-lens] camera with a 35mm [focal length] lens [is acceptable] but anything more is considered professional equipment and too large for spectator seating.’

Does any camera actually come with a 35mm focal length lens?
Even a 50 is rare these days, it’s usually an 18-55 kit on DSLR’s, and a 14-55 or thereabouts on mirrorless compacts.
Seems very odd to me.
Sticking with something like my TZ seems the best option; 20x zoom, 23-430, iirc.

CountZero, its very bizzare?

Has anyone seen anything official stating the above?

I called the london2012 website a couple of days ago, for clarification of the rules and they only mentioned the max. 30cm length to photographic kit rule.

an 18-55 kit on DSLR’s

55mm on a 1.6 crop APS-C is ostensibly 35mm. I’ve more chance of growing a second willy than the security staff knowing that though.

Has anyone seen anything official stating the above?

Not personally, only the Amateur Photography link, so far.

55mm on a 1.6 crop APS-C is ostensibly 35mm. I’ve more chance of growing a second willy than the security staff knowing that though.

No it’s not, it’s 88 mm

It seems there’s now a new market for ultrazoom compacts. 🙄

People who make rules like this really need to be made to take a 1200 mm lens from behind, sideways.

No it’s not, it’s 88 mm

Balls, of course it is. I really should think before I type. (-:

Just to follow up on this with my experiences and a couple of tips,

I went to the Olympics yesterday. I was armed with a 17L rucksack (purchased for a fiver in ASDA as I’d nothing down here sub-25L that wasn’t tiny). In it contained my Canon 450D dSLR, 18-55 kit lens and 55-250 zoom, my OH’s Lumix GF2, and an (empty) water bottle off my bike. OH had a 14L Osprey Raptor with half a dozen sandwiches in it.

Security was airport-style with a personnel x-ray and a conveyor belt x-ray for bags etc.

We turned up at Victoria Gate at about 7:30am, from Hackney Wick station. There was about a dozen other people there, it was dead. We went straight through security without any issues whatsoever, only thing we got pulled up on was an accidentally overlooked can of Red Bull in OH’s bag. The gate staff were all smiley and lovely.

Once in, we could see people coming in from the Stratford entrance. It was absolutely mobbed.

Leaving, there were announcements saying to avoid Stratford station as it was very busy and to walk to West Ham instead. We elected to ignore both of these and go to Stratford International instead; the free travelcard that came with the tickets is valid for the Javelin high-speed train service.

It’s a bit of a frig to get to as the signs are misleading. You can’t get out of the park by following ‘Stratford International’ signage, it’s a dead end; you need to leave by the main Stratford exit and then hang a left and loop back round in front of John Lewis. Once there though, the Javelin is ace. Stratford to King’s Cross in seven minutes, and it was half empty.

By the way, these are my flickr sets from the other events I went to – Beach Volleyball and Swimming:

Beach Volleyball
Swimming

Switzerland v Greece by theflatboy, on Flickr

Start of the women’s 100m breaststroke by theflatboy, on Flickr

I was there Fri & Sat with my bag of pro kit (D4 body & lens selection) and no problems getting in. Sadly, I didn’t have seats anywhere near enough to worry the pros shot wise, best of the day were:

Jessica Ennis in the Heptathlon 200m, 2012 London Olympcs by brf, on Flickr

Tirunesh Dibaba wins Women’s 10000m at 2012 London Olympics by brf, on Flickr

And the best Badminton match I’ve ever seen, had me screaming ‘Come on Denmark’ till I was blue in the face:

Denmark beat Korea in Semi-final Men’s Doubles Badminton by brf, on Flickr

Rebecca Gallantree, Women’s 3m springboard preliminary round, London 2012 Olympics by brf, on Flickr

Footflaps, good shots! I was there Friday for the evening session & even though I took my 70-300 lens , being in row 73 (3 from back) meant it was a bit of a waste of time. Got a few shots of the shotput & start of the 200m final.

I had no problems at all getting in with my camera kit.

So, any update on restrictions (or otherwise!) for the MTB venue?

CFH – hard to say. To be honest, the rules are completely nonsense.

That update came out before I had been to the Olympic Stadium but I got.on fine – as did the thousands of other people milling around with SLRs.
There is a update on that amateur photographer link saying the Olympic website still has the 30cm rule, and lower down there is a link to the rules for Wembley Stadium. This statement is also nonsense as it says no pro looking equipment at all, so I didn’t take my camera. But, when I for there, there were again thousands of SLRs. I asked security whether I could have brought mine with me and the bloke said yeah, it would have been fine. His reaction was almost shock that I was even asking.

no pro looking equipment at all

This is the silliness of it! Does my DSLR look “pro”?

With the kit lens, I’d imagine not. If I had one of my zooms fitted, who knows!

If it’s one of the grey Canon lenses, I’d imagine that would be a no-no…..!

I reckon, given the outside nature of the event (not a closed stadium), I’ll be risking it. What’s the worst that can happen? Will take kit lens and one zoom.

Well I will be taking my D90 and a 18-55 & 70-300 to the Olympic stadium on Wednesday, only chance I will get to take photographs at the Olympics

Anyway by now, I am sure we would have heard stories in the press of unhappy photographers if there had been issues

To reiterate,

I’ve seen no official restrictions posted bar the “30cm” one I linked to earlier. There was an article in Amateur Photography online a couple of days back suggesting a crackdown, but there’s nothing official to back this up.

I posted my comments earlier today on the back of this. To wit, I had zero problems taking in a dSLR, a CSC, and three lenses including a 250mm telephoto, all in one bag.

If it’s one of the grey Canon lenses, I’d imagine that would be a no-no…..!

I forgot to add, I also saw a few people wandering around with 200mm and bigger L-series lenses (and no ‘official’ lanyards).

I think the whole thing is an exercise in misinformation and overreaction. The whole point is to prohibit unauthorised professional media photographers and to stop selfish people from obstructing other spectators’ views. If you’re a regular punter like everyone else, turning up to watch an event and take a few holiday snaps but just happen to have an expensive camera, no-one will actually care.

If it’s one of the grey Canon lenses, I’d imagine that would be a no-no…..!

as Cougar says, I saw several people wandering around the Olympic parkl with some pretty long ‘Pro’ Canon lenses; easily longer than my 70-300.

Cougar – Member
To reiterate,

I’ve seen no official restrictions posted bar the “30cm” one I linked to earlier. There was an article in Amateur Photography online a couple of days back suggesting a crackdown, but there’s nothing official to back this up.

There is definitely an e-mail sent out with tickets for Wembley stadium that says ‘Professional looking cameras will not be allowed into the venue”. My sister received this e-mail as she bought the tickets and it also says it is specific to the football venues.
Again though, this turned out to be nonsense. The whole thing is ridiculous.

ski – Member
Well I will be taking my D90 and a 18-55 & 70-300 to the Olympic stadium on Wednesday, only chance I will get to take photographs at the Olympics

ski – I took my D80 with 18-135 & the 70-300 tucked into the bottom of my rucsack. There was absolutely no bother.
And as you say, I’m sure there would have been “Unhappy of Buckinghamshire” type stories in the Daily Mail of people who’d had their kit swiped, if that was the case.

Wembley Stadium appears to be an exception, but not Wembley Arena, as I took my D4 + 70-200 f2.8 in there no problem.

footflaps – Member
Wembley Stadium appears to be an exception, but not Wembley Arena, as I took my D4 + 70-200 f2.8 in there no problem.

I think the advice is the exception, but not the actual situation. As I mentioned above, I didn’t take my SLR to Wembley because of the specific warning but there were people there with SLRs and all sorts of interchangeable lens cameras; and a lot of people, not just a few here and there.
When I enquired I was told that I could have bought my SLR without any problems.

An obscenely large stitch:

London 2012 Olympic Stadium by brf, on Flickr

Took my Olympus E520 with 40-150 mm lens into Excel Arena no problem. More hassle was having to dig the Ipad out of the bottom of the bag.

Took it to get a few snaps to show my mates back at the Judo club as I was the only one to get tickets.

Few snaps here, not as good as some but I like a couple of them.

[/url] Moment of realisation by Moose, on Flickr[/img]

[/url] P7226499 by Moose, on Flickr[/img]

[/url] P7216324 by Moose, on Flickr[/img]

[/url] Escape by Moose, on Flickr[/img]

Pictures from an awesome Velodrome session yesterday:

London 2012 Track Cycling

Laura Trott keeping warm by theflatboy, on Flickr

Chris Hoy warming up on the rollers by theflatboy, on Flickr

Tara Whitten in the Omnium pursuit by theflatboy, on Flickr

I love the shot of Laura warming up, all alone in that big empty space, quite a contrast to the usual chaos surrounding the athletes.

Well took the D90 in the end & no problems getting in, the volunteers there were great, venue was amazing and the sport was worth the effort in the end getting tickets 😉

DSC_5874.NEF by scotiedog, on Flickr

DSC_5814.NEF by scotiedog, on Flickr

DSC_5799.NEF by scotiedog, on Flickr

DSC_5490.NEF by scotiedog, on Flickr

DSC_5335.NEF by scotiedog, on Flickr